1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer networking, and more particularly to providing high speed network access at a customer premise or wireless device including cellular or Internet applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional telecommunications networks adapted for data communication providing high speed Internet access and the like facilitate network access with network nodes employing routers for directing data traffic between a customer premise modem. The advantage of the resulting mesh network structure of the conventional network that deploys routers and modems achieves substantial accessibility through redundancy by allowing each customer to route communications through the modem equipment associated with other customer premises. In the mesh network model, the redundancy achieved comes at considerable expense and also increases the latency across the network substantially. Some Internet service providers employed an approach where a tower feeds one customer premise, and then the other customers use multi-hop Internet protocol (IP) to connect via the first customer premise to provide high speed Internet access to a residential or small business customer community. However, this approach has proved to be problematic and inefficient because of the breakdown in accessibility that occurs when modems are powered down at customer premise or when customers cancel within the multi-hop IP connection, and substantial network configuration considerations are required to maintain network access in the overall system.
In the wireless Internet access environment in particular, having routing involved in a mesh network that accommodates for roaming of mobile devices requires announcements across the meshed network each time a new customer signs onto the wireless network to maintain security. Wireless modems with routers also require IP routing between each wireless modem. Accordingly, controlling and securing wireless networks employing routers in place for a meshed network structure results in substantial complexity and expense.
Moreover, in a meshed network, the data communications may tend to hop around the network before arriving at a gateway so as to increase the latency associated with the information communicated. This creates unwanted traffic on the wireless network. In addition, bandwidth management becomes a major issue, inasmuch as the service provider will have difficulty controlling the direction of all of the traffic. It would be desirable therefore to provide for high speed network access regardless of customer premise location within a community with decreased latency and expenditure.
Essentially, Internet users are presently presented with two options for access, i.e., that of a dial up account or broadband Internet service. The typical dial up account provides services for customers with speeds up to 56 Kbps. On the other hand, broadband service, which often costs at least twice as much as a dial up account, provides speeds from 384 Kbps to 5144 Kbps. In addition, most users also provide a second telephone line at the customer premise with their dial up service, which also increases the cost to the customer. There is also an install time typically associated with broadband service of up to several weeks, where available. Increasingly, business customers have also attempted to decrease their network communication cost by replacing communication lines with a virtual private network (VPN) via the Internet with reinforced security provisions for commercial transactions. It would be further desirable therefore to provide network access which allows for fast and inexpensive deployment by bypassing the public switch telephone network.
Currently, wireless Internet access is delivered from a tower, normally situated from an elevated location directly to the customer premise such that a direct line of sight is provided to the customer within several miles. These solutions are attendant with several problems associated with radio wave propagation characteristics, bandwidth utilization, as well as deployment costs. If the customer premise is situated in a low spot and out of sight of the tower, for example, the customer may not be able to receive service. The towers also emit radio waves across large areas and thus tend to over utilize available frequency spectrum. Additionally, the cost associated with deploying each customer may range from several hundred to thousands of dollars and tens of thousands of dollars for the service provider per tower. Accordingly, it is further desired to provide a wireless Internet access system having multiple access points throughout a location in a community which allows the customer to connect to a local access point which tends to handle low spot issues and extends service area indefinitely. Where one tower currently serves a large area, hundreds of smaller access points may be deployed for much broader coverage area at overall reduced costs.
The present invention provides a wireless network access system in which the network is laid out in a tree fashion, where each access point feeds back to higher access points to provide high speed Internet access to residential and small business customers regardless of their location in a community while decreasing deployment time and cost. The system and method advantageously uses access points that relay information back to a main gateway which supplies network access from a T3 or other high speed Internet connection. This approach utilizes numerous access points throughout a community, such that each access point relays information from other access points providing deeper coverage than typically available with line of sight communications from towers.
The described system does not employ routers in all of the access points or in the customer premise wireless modems, and thereby speeds processing time and reduces network latency and costs associated with a mesh network employing routers. Removing the router from substantially all of the wireless modems also allows for roaming of mobile devices while maintaining security and speed. The described system creates a bridge, using a protocol operable at a lower level than TCP/IP which supports TCP/IP communication, from the customer all the way back to the gateway or to a router that is inserted into an upstream access point to provide redundancy and to segment the traffic. Each access point can relay information from one wireless modem to another. An access point and an upstream wireless modem serving as a relay point with a downstream wireless modem as an option at the relay point customer premise are provided as three devices that are connected, e.g., via an Ethernet connection in a described embodiment. In the future, all of these wireless modems could be manufactured into one unit.
Two aspects of the wireless network access system and method further ensure secure communications. First, any information that comes into the wireless side has to go out the wired side, i.e., toward the gateway. Secondly, the access points provide filtering, e.g., on a protocol operable at a lower level than TCP/IP and supports TCP/IP communication (such as, but not limited to, Ethernet, Frame Relay, ATM, etc.), such that communications is limited as between the downstream wireless modem(s) and the access point providing service to the customer such that only upstream and downstream communication directly with the gateway is provided, thus prohibiting direct communication between individual customer premise modems. Thus, there is a filter provided between customer premises.
Briefly summarized, the wireless network access system and method provides a multiplicity of access point devices, each being capable of relaying information from at least one of the other access point devices. The wireless network is provided as a tree structure wherein each access point feeds back to a higher access point of the multiplicity of access point devices. A multiplicity of customer premise wireless network devices are provided with a wireless modem for communication from the customer premise limited to a path all the way back to a main gateway upstream to the wired side of the network where the gateway provides a T3 or other high speed Internet connection. Each customer premise wireless network access device also includes a directional antenna connected to the wireless modem and an interface adapted for conveying bidirectional data signals via the customer premise to the wireless modem. The wireless modem, in an environmental enclosure, and the directional antenna are locatable outside the customer premise for communication with an upstream network access device. The upstream network access device may include an omni-directional antenna for downstream communications.